Effects of acupuncture and stabilising exercises as adjunct to standard treatment in pregnant women with pelvic girdle pain: randomised single blind controlled trial

Abstract

Objectives To compare the efficacy of standard treatment, standard treatment plus acupuncture, and standard treatment plus stabilising exercises for pelvic girdle pain during pregnancy. Design Randomised single blind controlled trial. Settings East Hospital, Gothenburg, and 27 maternity care centres in Sweden. Participants 386 pregnant women with pelvic girdle pain. Interventions Treatment for six weeks with standard treatment (n = 130), standard treatment plus acupuncture (n = 125), or standard treatment plus stabilising exercises (n = 131). Main outcome measures Primary outcome measure was pain (visual analogue scale); secondary outcome measure was assessment of severity of pelvic girdle pain by an independent examiner before and after treatment. Results After treatment the stabilising exercise group had less pain than the standard group in the morning (median difference = 9, 95% confidence interval 1.7 to 12.8; P = 0.0312) and in the evening (13, 2.7 to 17.5; P = 0.0245). The acupuncture group, in turn, had less pain in the evening than the stabilising exercise group ( − 14, − 18.1 to − 3.3; P = 0.0130). Furthermore, the acupuncture group had less pain than the standard treatment group in the morning (12, 5.9 to 17.3; P < 0.001) and in the evening (27, 13.3 to 29.5; P < 0.001). Attenuation of pelvic girdle pain as assessed by the independent examiner was greatest in the acupuncture group. Conclusion Acupuncture and stabilising exercises constitute efficient complements to standard treatment for the management of pelvic girdle pain during pregnancy. Acupuncture was superior to stabilising exercises in this study.

Therapeutic exercise for pregnancy low back and pelvic pain: a systematic review

“…Among them, 25 were considered to be potentially relevant. After assessing the complete articles, 16 were excluded because they did not report interventions that were supervised or guided by physical therapists (9-11, 24-28); because they associated the exercises to manual therapy (29,30); because they were unpublished (theses and dissertations) (31)(32)(33); for lack of data (34); or because they did not relate the outcomes or interventions of interest (8,35). Thus, eight studies (36)(37)(38)(39)(40)(41)(42)(43), published between the years of 2005 and 2014, were included in this systematic review (Tables 2, 3 Eight RCT (36 -43) were included; one about low back pain (36), two about pelvic pain (37,38) and five about low back and/or pelvic pain (39 -43) .…”

Demanding and challenging: Men’s experiences of living with a pregnant woman with pelvic girdle pain: An interview study

“…Also, the complaint is often trivialized in healthcare [14,15] . Efficient treatments are lacking, but acupuncture and specific stabilising exercises as an adjunct to a pelvic belt, ergonomic advice and home training exercises have been shown to decrease pain and improve function [2,11,16] . PGP has been found to disappear soon after delivery but tends to recur in future pregnancies [7] .…”

Effects of craniosacral therapy as experienced by pregnant women with severe pelvic girdle pain: An interview study

“…It was part of a project encompassing an RCT comparing CST plus ST with ST alone for well-defined PGP [10] . ST (education, a pelvic belt and home exercise) was the same as in two previous treatment studies for PGP [8,9] . CST was performed in a spacious room with windows and natural light.…”

“…out in Scandinavia [8][9][10][11][12] , the condition has also been reported in Africa [3] , the Americas [13] , Asia [14,15] , Australia [13] and Europe [16][17][18] . PGP is a musculoskeletal pain concentrated to an area between the posterior iliac crests and gluteal folds, particularly in the sacroiliac joint area.…”